Right now I’m supposed to be at the gym. Well, I guess I can miss it this evening. I’ll go tomorrow. I’ve been saying that since last July, when I joined the gym.
Actually, over the past month and a half I’ve been fairly good about my gym attendance. I haven’t lost any weight, but at least I feel better about the money I’m spending.
It seems that almost everybody in this city has a membership to a gym. They are located on about every other block. The most popular chain of gyms seems to be New York Sports Club.
When I decided to move to the Big City over a year ago one of the variables I considered was the availability of the gym where I was working. On a college campus access to the gym is usually free. In the Big City I would have to pay for access to a gym. After some mulling of the issue it occurred to me that I wasn’t really using the gym at school, so I wasn’t really losing that much. Still, after a few months of living in the Big City I felt guilty about my weight. I joined the gym.
The gym experience in the Big City is much like it appears on television. There are rows of treadmills and stationary bikes being used by people who look like they don’t need the workout. I am not the average gym attendee in this situation. I don’t look anything like these people. I am the Pillsbury doughboy compared to these people. This is why January has been such a wonderful time for me.
In January all the New Years resolutions people showed up. The median fitness level of the people at the gym dropped like a brick. I felt as though I was at home among my people. A couple of weeks ago there was a man who, in the locker room, was breathing heavy and sweating. He was changing his cloths to BEGIN his workout.
Where is the defibrillator when you need it?
Now that we are half way through February we are getting back to the original group. The hard bodies. I have been going to the gym almost every day for the past six weeks. I have gained three pounds. Literally. It is as though my body is asking me “ARE YOU CRAZY?”.
My gym is less than a block from the office. When I first joined I tried going during the day, when I’m supposed to be at work. That plan didn’t work too well. Now I’m going in the evening. The advantage to the current situation is that it forces me to leave work as soon after quitting time as possible. If I wait an extra 15 minutes I’m not going to a seat on one of the stationary bikes, and that is important. Each bike is equipped with its own TV. I have the system timed out so that I can catch the “Simpson’s” on channel 5. Last week I had a change of pace. I watched the congressional hearings regarding Enron.
There are some aspects of the gym I don’t understand. For example, the “spinning class”. It appears that people sign up for a class where they are led by a professional fitness trainer in using stationary bikes. How much instruction is needed to pedal a bike that can’t tip over?
The other classes I understand. There is the kick boxing class. I tend to use the weight machines outside of that classroom during the class. As a result of watching that class I have a profound respect for the ability of a 110 pound woman to kick my butt.
So, I’m trying to take better care of myself. I still have a number of years that I need to use this body. I am not deluded enough to think that I’m going to look substantially better, but maybe I won’t have a heart attack as soon as I would otherwise. In the meantime, the New York Times has today confirmed what I have always known. Some people are genetically “fluffy”. I’m certain I am one of them. If it is in the “Times” it has to be true.
